Lens for automobile-headlights



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WILLIAM HENRY SHERROD, OF SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, .ASSIGNOR TO JAMES HENRY SHARPE, 0F SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

LENS FOR AUTOMOBILE-HEADLIGHTS.

Specification of Letters Eatent.

Patented nee. a, raie.

Application filed February 21, 1918. Serial No. 218,577.

To all whom 1f/may concern.'

Be it known that I, WILLIAM HENRY SHERROD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Seattle; in the county of King and -State of Washington, have invented a" new and useful Improvement in Lenses for Automobile-Headlights, of which the following is a. specification.

This invention relates to improvements in lenses for use lin the front lamps of'motor driven vehicles, and the object of this improvement' is to produce a lens comprising a series of prisms, certain of which prisms retracted to project the light emerging from the head lamp downwardly in the roadway and thus do away with' the blinding glare that is always visible to pedestrians and to the driver of an approaching car, without sacrificing any material part of the 'illuminating eificiency of the headlight.

A furtlier object-resides in the provision of certain prisms for projecting the rays downwardly with a widerbeam in front of the car, and a still further and all important object resides in the provison of a lens .having prisms laterally disposed and of such ing qualities of the cone of rays; andsecondly,.such light as may .be reflected to the side of the car by the dilfused rays does not illuminate sufciently or carry far enough to be of any material advantage, as, for instance, in rounding an abrupt curve in the roadway.

My invention contemplates certain distinct projections of the light rays, a more detailed explanation of which will be found in the following specification, illustrated in the accompanying -.drawings "and finally pointed out in the appended claim; v

In the drawings Figure 1' is a plan vilew of my improved lens Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof; Fig. 3 isa section cut along line --A of Fig'; and Fig. 4 is a section cut along line B-B of Fig. 2.'

Referring more particularly to the dra.w'

. therethrough.

theperipheral edge of `my integrally formed lens, which is adapted'to be disposed with` vin an ordinary socket provided in an auto# mobile. lamp.

l2 vis a prism comprising substantially the upper half area of the lens andbeing .of greater 'thickness at its lower edge l and tapering toward its upper edge as at 3., so that it will have the effectV of projecting -downwardly the 'rays of light that pass The lower prism 14 of the lens being of decreasing thicknessfrom the lower center portion of its periphery 7 to its upper p e` riphery 8 thus increases the projection of the cone of rays downwardly so that the beam of illumination will appear directly in front of the car upon the roadbed.

13 and l5 are integrally formed prisms disposed on the adjacent sides of the lower 'from ltheir outer peripheral edges to their,

adjacent disposed apeXes 5', where thry converge to a pointof contact in the center of`the lens. v

The advantages that inure from the decreasing thickness of these two laterally disposed converging prisms are first, that no light rays from the center portion of the lens will be refracted laterally but will be bent downwardly to illuminate the road ahead of the vehicle, and secondly, such rays as emerge are caused to be projected laterally and downwardly to light a considerable area on both sides of the can I thus attain through the angular relationship of these -four prisms separate and distinctive rays erally disposed prisms projeet the cones of rays laterally and downwardly to illuminate the area on both sidesl of the car.

The outside surfaces of the prisms 12, 13,

v141: and 1.5 areall disposed vin the' same yparallel planeand' the inside surfaces are all disposed at an angle to the outside surfaces so that they willdefiect the rays-of light that pass therethrough.

Havingthus described my invention, what I claim as new and 'desire to protect by Letters Patent, isz.' i j' '1 eal A lensv comprising a plurality of prismatic sections on its rear face, one of said sections comprisingtheupper half area of said lens and being of decreasing thickness from its lower horizontal edge toits upper periphery, laterally disposed prismatic sections of decreasing thickness from their outer peripheral edges to their horizontally disposed apexes, andthe lower prismatic A section being correspondingly of decreasing 10 thickness from its lower to its upper pe- Athday of February, 1918.

WLLIAM HENRY SHERROD. Witnesses: t I

D. C. KUHNs, R. J. Coon.- 

